David B. Larson, M.D., was a psychiatrist trained at Duke, who founded and directed the National Institute for Healthcare Research and was a leader in the religion and health research field. He died suddenly at the young age of 54 on March 5, 2002. The David B. Larson Memorial Lecture was established in 2003 to honor Dr. Larson’s pioneering work.
David B. Larson Memorial Lecture
The 23rd Annual David B. Larson Memorial Lecture will be held Thursday, March 6, 2025. The speaker this year is Michael Balboni, PhD, Th.M., M.Div., a congregational pastor and theologian (see below).
The title, location and time of the lecture are listed below. All are welcome and no reservation is required. Contact Dr. Koenig (Harold.Koenig@duke.edu) for more information.
Title: Hostility to Hospitality: Rediscovering Medicine in the midst of depersonalizing forces
Brief Summary: The talk discusses market, bureaucratic, and technological energies that continue to erode the patient-clinician relationship. Can these energies be resisted or reversed? At the core of medicine remains a sacramental and divine encounter, which if recovered through actions and institutions of hospitality, hold possibility to rejuvenate the beautiful gift of medicine.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
5:30 – 6:30PM (in-person only) (not being recorded or broadcast remotely)
Location: Duke Divinity School, 0116 Westbrook Lecture Hall
Presented by: Michael Balboni, PhD, Th.M., M.Div.
Michael Balboni, PhD, Th.M., M.Div., is a congregational pastor and theologian. He has served both as a congregational minister in Boston and an intentional Christian community of healthcare students and professionals. He holds a Ph.D. in practical theology from Boston University and completed post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health and at Harvard Divinity School. As an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and a palliative care researcher he has published approximately fifty articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. As a theologian, his focus has included the development of a theology of medicine and a concentration in the theological underpinnings related spiritual care in a pluralistic, secular medical context. With Tracy Balboni, he has co-authored “Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization in Medicine” (Oxford University Press). The book explores a theology of medicine, including its decline through secularization, and hope for renewal through faith communities. He is also the co-editor of “Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine” (Oxford University Press). His current book project, also with Tracy Balboni, entitled “Dancing with Lois”, focuses on Jesus’ call for spiritual leadership and sacrifice in the accompaniment and care for the seriously ill a dying.
